Traffic

Just before heading off to Boston I finished up Traffic, Why We Drive The Way We Do. It's strange because I normally remember why I pick out books to read, but I can't remember why I picked this one. The author is a writer for slate so that could have had something to do with it.

In my own words I would say the main point of the book is - you suck at driving and you suck so bad you don't even realize how bad you suck. The book actually covers a number of topic related to driving. Some of it is about the psychology of how drivers interact with each other and with pedestrians, traffic planning, safe driving, estimating risk, local driving habits...

On the one hand I thought the book is interesting because it does explain a lot about driving and traffic, which considering I spend a decent amount of time in a car it is cool to know. On the other hand most of it is just telling you what the problem is, not what you can actually do about it. And on the weird mutant third hand, it is a book about traffic and driving so it can only be so exciting.

A few interesting things I picked up from it:
-Dialing a cell phone seems way more dangerous than talking on a cell phone. And for a set time it is more dangerous. In fact talking on a cell phone almost imperceptibly increases the second to second risk while driving. But when you integrate the increased risk of talking on the phone over a half hour conversation it adds up to be significant and far more than the moment it takes to dial.
-One of the best ways to be safer on the road is to have a passenger (except if you're a teenage boy and the passengers are teenage boys). Both because you'll drive safer for the other person and because it is the rare time when you actually have feedback about your driving and a second set of eyes. The you suck so bad at driving you don't even know it has a lot to do with the fact you almost never get feedback about your driving.
-The book talks about numerous safety measures and traffic designs tried by traffic engineers and they all seem to come down to two things, the main one is getting people to slow down and pay attention. One village in Denmark (or one of those northern european countries) has a city with zero traffic signs. They never have accidents because they make the roads seem dangerous and integrated with pedestrians (narrow roads near pedestrians and lots of round abouts) so people slow down and pay attention. Actually the idea that what seems dangerous is actually often safer because it gets the drivers to slow down and pay attention is a common theme in the book.
-There were some interesting descriptions of how traffic jams travel as waves which is why when you see a slow down it seems to be at a completely random spot and time.
-He also discusses issues with traffic reduction schemes. One interesting part was about people often wish they'd just open another lane on a busy road. But adding extra lanes almost never helps because more people will use that road (you might think that would clear up other roads, but a lot of it is added traffic that wouldn't exist otherwise). He talked about evidence that it is only a matter of a day or two before people will re-route to use the added space.

While the book is really about driving it does have some interesting insight into other topics like psychology and risk assessment.

One odd thing about the book is it is 402 pages long. But if you don't count the acknowledgments and footnotes it is 286 pages. So it is much shorter than it first appears.